NHL Player Safety came out on Sunday to announce that New York Rangers forward Matt Rempe would be suspended for eight games after a dangerous hit to Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. The report from the league claims that Rempe violated multiple NHL rules on the hit, which can be seen below. For one, they mentioned that the force was “upwards” and that Heiskanen was “defenseless.”
Matt Rempe has been suspended 8 games for boarding and elbowing pic.twitter.com/gVnyqYiFks
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 22, 2024
The report went on to say that Rempe “drove” his elbow and forearm into Heiskanen’s neck. This hit is a violation of both the boarding and elbowing rules. The general consensus is it’s a boarding penalty when you hit him in the numbers. It’s hard to do that when you’re elbowing someone, so it’s pretty clear and obvious both rules were violated.
Some of the other terminology the NHL used to describe the hit were “reckless,” “dangerous,” and “violent.” It’s clear this is not a hit the league wants to happen. Luckily, Heiskanen was not injured on the play, but these are the types of hits that will put a star player out for months one day if they are allowed to continue.
Matt Rempe will be out for eight games due to an illegal hit. His next matchup will be against the New Jersey Devils.
The hit was even more idiotic when considering the situation. Rempe was given a major penalty and a game misconduct despite the fact that his team was only up by one goal, desperate for points, and he forced them to kill five minutes of power play time. Again luckily for Rempe, the Rangers won the game.
The league mentioned the illegal hit Rempe made on Jonas Siegenthaler last season that forced him out of the lineup for weeks with a concussion. Rempe was suspended for four games for that hit. We wrote back then that the love affair with this dangerous player needs to end, as he wasn’t providing anything of substance to the game other than putting players on the shelf. The league said his history is the reason he was given this hefty suspension.
Rempe has now been thrown out of four games in his NHL career, three of those games were against the Devils, including for the terrible hit on Siegenthaler.
Rempe is going to miss Monday’s game against the Devils, but for those who like the chaos that comes with a Hudson River Rivalry, he will be eligible on January 9th. That is the third of four Devils-Rangers matchups in the 2024-25 season.
Many will hope Rempe isn’t in the lineup for that game and the Rangers instead put him back in the AHL, as Rempe has a bad habit of injuring Devils players. However, it could be a good opportunity for the Devils to really put the Rangers away for good. Who knows where the Rangers will be in seven games, but if the Rangers are beaten with Rempe in the lineup, they will feel they have no answers left.